Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-01-23
THE PURE WATER QUESTION.

night to meet Win tue fOSt at Ihin Ph
THE PURE WATER QUESTION.
The Bischof- Anderson System severely
Criticised.
To The Editor Of The Register.
Care in examining the system OF water
publication Observation-Disclosures brought To
NV notice in the SUNDAY REGISTER OF De
cember PC. with lack OF leisure, has caused
some delay in responding to the call. but
if nv friend Mercury" had seen the fuller
abstract of Mr.. Anderson's paper IN the
Engineering Netns, i'll addition to the prie'
summary that he quoted from the Sclfhtgc
american, his perspicuity would undouot-
edly have discovered in that candid state
ment itself abundant evidence that inter-
ing expedients entirely behind the times
in America, are considered worth talking
about in Europe. In fact the more one
investigates the water practice IN the most
enlightened parts of the Old World the
greater grows the wonder at It's still priIl-
tive character in comparison with the
more advanced stage of the art OF water
DlIllt1ll6H III Ohl WI
However, not to PREJUDICE the question: lei
us see Just what this iron process Is, ana
what is its history, by the representations
of its present sponsor, Mr.. Anderson.
Stated in brief il is settling-basin filtration
of water prepared Ivy the chemical action
of iron upon lis organic and other soluble
contents. These processes are gwen hrstas
arranged eighteen years ago, by Irot. u.
BiSchof, and then rs modified, from neceS-
Sity, by Mr.. Anderson. Prof. BlSchoi =
filter bed consisted of a top layer Of sand,
an intermediate mixture of granuler iron
and gravel, and a bottom layer of sand.
The simple process, of settling and StIalning
the water through these materials, MIR.
Anderson says, was in Use Tor some lime NJ
Antwerp, on II large scale, cleaning the
water almost perfectly; but owing to the
greatly polluted condition Ofthe river, the
iron had an abnormal amount OF work to
do, and the layer of gravel and iron was
quickly choked by the dissolved impurities.
The upper layer of sand had to he cleaned
about every two weeks, i'll the usual way;
that is, by Scraping off and washing or
changing the sand. =,
When this was removed the gravel and
iron particles were found thickly coated
and mixed with "A reddish Shiny substance.
to Il depth of six or eight inches; while
deeper down, ''thc mixture was OF an IN
tense black" the organic impurities clog
ging up q very open mixture OF gravel anu
iron, much too coarse to act as a filter.
These results speak for themselves, AMI
sufficiently account for Mr.. Anderson
effort Ia improve the mechanism; apart
from the fact that the infowing water was
twelve hours in reaching and passing
through the filter, and ISSUED 1T the rate
Of only s~Cvcnty-iivc gallons IN tweny-iOsr
hours. per square foot OF tiltcring surface.
Mr.. .AndcrsOn'S improvement to hasten
the filtration and prevent cloGging OF tine
iron part (only) Of the filter bed, WAS to
put the iron filings into a horizontal re-
vOlving cylinder, in which the water Is
''trunkled'' with them rs il passes through
and issues into the filter bed of sand, with
its soluble impurities d~isenglged and CO.
agulated for filtratiOn-So far rs iron alon"
can effect this result. 1t is said that the
albuminOid ammonia IL reduced Ia from
one-haIf to onc-fifth of its original amount
IN rrrV f0WI trdt,T. In America, we should
consider that proportion of reduction very
far from a triumph, even in ordinarily pot
able water. In foul water il might he
thought IN improvement, hut IT would not
he called purify ing. And, again, we should
not think of depending on iron alone,
which is but one and not the leading one,
among the chemicals Of the soil that are
employed in nature and Tin the art accord
inu To nature As 10 the filtration
following: the costly, cumhrOuS, foul
and Ineffective filter beds of Europe
never commanded the approval of Amcrl-
can common sense Ia any great extent,
even when we had nothing better, we
could hardly he persuaded of the utility,
for more than Il few days in the year, "fa
filter that could he cleaned only once i'll
three or six months, and then only by
scraping of a top layer of tilth-amd which
has 10 he stimulated to work every few
DAYS. a. Mr.. Anderson sIyS, "hy trailing
i light chain over the Surttc" Of the sand
aud by that means breaking up the Shiny
deposits
Much appears to hr thought oI the effect
of this process on bal water. Some pre-
cipitation" 0l the rarhOmateS is said Ia bc
produced and an appreciate amount Of
s0ftening results; inaSmuch that IN the
boilers of the pumping station ut Antwerp,
''the scale was greatly reduced IN quantity,
and became nfan open M iriahle charac-
ter, which did not adhere Ia the boiler
plates" DR.. De Wolf, Health Officer Of
Chicago. states from personal inyrstigI-
that the water of the foul Chicago
river, which scales boilers heavily, is
f"nnd after publication 10y the Hyatt
method not only to dcpnSlt no scale or scdl-
ment. but actually Ia dissolve and clear
out the scale previously formed.
| cannot express a tribute Of of admira-
ton for the absolute cand0r with which
this interested writer gives us the weak
ncSScs and imperlectiOns ola process which,
if he were in America and knew what we
are doing here, could scarcely have seemed
Ia him worth saying anything at all
about.
should not omit to mention the sug-
gcStiOn of Mr.. Anderson, that treatment
With iron appears 10 destroy or remove
much of the iniusorial life The expert
mcnts of DIR. Frankland and Others are
quoted, hut no biological examination of
the Aforementioned water IL referred to.
Without questioning the auxiliary value Of
iron, il is pertinent 10 observe that by it,
self it has proved a failure, like other chem
zeal mediums, after y short term Of use;
probably from coating with the Shiny CO.
agulum, described by Mr.. Anderson, that
does not rinse of in the filter.
Mr.. r. Hatfield Walker, analyst for the
City of Carlisle, England, after expert
menting with all the leading mediums,
states that in every case, after some time
using, the filtered water gave, on %cultiva-
ton. q large number of colonies Of bacteria.
II wa disappointed, - he says, with the
iron; | fully expected it 10 come
out best. 1t certainly gave better results
rs regards the decrease in the number of
bacteria. While carbon at first entirely
all germs, after 4 few weeks they
sufficiently numerous to liquify
the gelatine, which did not occur L the